Braided Warriors were attacked by the police on Friday February 19 in the lobby of the Vancouver branch of AIG Canada, a transnational finance and insurance company that is insuring the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline in violation of Indigenous rights.
About half of the 1,150 kilometre-long pipeline is set to cross unceded Secwepemc territory without their free, prior and informed consent.
Can a government that has spent millions fighting nine consecutive orders to end racist discrimination against 165,000 Indigenous children and which regularly ignores United Nations calls to respect Indigenous nations' right to free, prior and informed consent be an ally in the fight to end white supremacist violence?
Can a nation state that continues to honour white supremacists with street names, statues, and school mascots be a reliable anti-racist partner?
As we reach the one year anniversary of the brutal raids on Wet'suwet'en territory and the wave of incredible action across Turtle Island, the struggle continues despite the challenges of COVID-19.
"We are endangering future generations," said Charles King, who locked himself to construction equipment, "and that's got to stop."
After three protesters were arrested on Monday at a Minnesota construction site for Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline, more than 50 water protectors on Tuesday marched onto an easement—with two people locking themselves to an excavator—and temporarily shut down work on the contested tar sands project.
"We owe it to future generations, to the Indigenous communities we've signed treaties with, and to every living being on this planet to stop building fossil fuel infrastructure."
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota traveled to the northern part of her state on Saturday to meet with Indigenous leaders and environmental justice advocates who are organizing opposition to Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline project.
